Tag Archives: The Religious Right is set back

“FOR more than three decades, conservative white evangelicals have been a dominant force within the Republican Party, shaping presidential primary contests and turning out to vote for the eventual nominee. This year, though, the relationship is coming undone, as the party — with the votes of a not insignificant number of conservative white evangelicals — is poised to nominate Donald J. Trump.For a constituency that has made conservative religious values, sexual purity and Bible-driven policy the cornerstone of its politics, Mr. Trump — the twice-divorced, foul-mouthed businessman who praised Planned Parenthood’s health services and nonchalantly gave Caitlyn Jenner permission to use the women’s room in Trump Tower — seems an odd choice.”

Here is an example of many excellent comments the articulate piece above: gemli is a trusted commenter Boston 5 hours ago

“With apologies to T.S. Eliot, evangelical cats may not come out to vote for Trump, but they’re not going away. They will continue to try to force the United States to be a Christian nation, even without the help of national candidates. They intend to make the wall between church and state come tumblin’ down, their latest effort being in finding new ways to demonize the LGBT community in North Carolina.

The marginalization of the Republican Party can be dated from the spawning of the Moral Majority by Jerry Falwell, coincident with the election of their patron saint, Ronald Reagan. This was the moment that honorable Republicans who were fiscally conservative and socially moderate started to veer into the lala land of Christian fundamentalism.

While we know better than to mix religion and politics at family gatherings, we somehow thought it fine to do so as a nation. The Republican Party gave political clout to what might have been nothing more than a fringe group, allowing religious conservatives to inject their theology into public policy. Stem-cell research dried up, legal abortion rights were trampled and a Christian litmus test for national elections was firmly established.

Trump may be crass and crude, but to me his speech is no less vulgar than that of evangelicals who demean LGBT citizens, attack women’s rights and replaces science with theological nonsense. If Trump weakens their influence, that’s a small silver lining to an otherwise very dark cloud.”